Methods and systems for managing virtual identities in the internet

Abstract

The present invention discloses methods and systems for managing and maintaining identities over time within the practically anonymous Internet environment. Said system and methods provide protection by tracking identities of partners over time, within multiple relations and over-riding common practices for identity switching.

Description

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to methods and systems for uniquely identifying, validating and evaluating identities of Internet users and the nature of their activities and the relations they are involved in.SUMMARY[0002]It is the purpose of the present invention to provide methods and systems for identifying the people as they appear in the Internet and their characteristics over time, and in particular the nature of the relations these people are involved in, and the activities they take part in. Such a service could provide ‘quality assurance’ even to anonymous identities. Three possible usages of such a method are:[0003]a. To protect children from on-line predators.[0004]b. To provide quality stamp for content that is provided by identified as well as anonymous Web 2.0 users.[0005]c. To protect against virtual identity thefts.The core capability of the invention is the ability to track people and relations over time, rather than just to...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]Embodiments of the present invention allows for accumulating identities of seemingly anonymous Internet users, and ensuring that while two anonymous people are interacting on-line:

[0019](1) Generating a finger print for each virtual identity—this allows for overcoming anonymity challenges; the finger prints can use one or more sources of information:

[0045]At the same time, the credibility of the content is vital for the degree of the exposure and the weight that the content will receive. By using the current invention, the person as well as the site owner can ensure that the person is a credible person, without ever having to provide identifying information not desired by the person—to the site or to the public.USAGE EXAMPLE II Child Protection

Problems solved by technology

For example:Unknown anonymous—an unknown person with no ICredit history or real-world identification data; might be a dangerous identity—but the system does not have sufficient data to generate an indication.Reliable anonymous—an anonymous person—who has gained sufficient ICredit history, but has not provided any real-world authentication; this might be sufficient identification for chat rooms and for content in Web 2.0 sites.Reliable credible anonymous—an anonymous (for the sake of the interaction) person—who has gained sufficient ICredit history and has also identified himself to the system with real-world identification; this might be useful for transactional committing forums.Professionally authenticated anonymous—a person who's either ICredit history or identification guarantee the specific profession in question; this might be useful for professional forums.Identified credible—a person who is identified to the interaction partner, but needs certification from the system—that this is really the person.

The space owner is legally exposed as malicious users can publish harmful content that harm the reputation of people, or which is illegal in some other way.

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